The financial sector was again in focus on Friday as JP Morgan reported lower than expected revenues as deep losses on mortgage and credit card loans weighed on the financial giant. Even though JP Morgan handily beat earnings estimates, cautionary reports from Morgan’s management team brought up fresh concerns about a protracted downturn and sent most stocks, especially banks, sharply downward to close the week.
The ETFdb 60 Index, a benchmark measuring the performance of asset classes available through ETFs, shed 7.45 points, or 0.7%, to finish the week at 1,046.03.
Among the day’s biggest losers was the Market Vectors Total Return Gold Miners (GDX) which was down 2.4% as gold traded down more than $12/oz on Friday. The price of the yellow metal trended lower after concerns that China may slow down its purchase of commodities and an extremely weak CPI number for December: the benchmark rose only 0.1% for the month. Both of these factors kept inflation hawks at bay, which helped to keep commodity markets in check across the board.
Bucking the downward trend was iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) which was up 2.6% in Friday trading. This was due in large part to the choppy market and the fresh concerns about a double dip recession. For more information on VIX, read our recent feature here.
Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.
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